Those games you play are a lot easier to deal with oversight-wise. I disagree with your conclusion. You're assuming in-house doesn't have the same perverse incentives. Also, pricing information can be impossible to discover. You often hear on HN how nobody can realistically estimate large software programs. Under that regime, what good is a firm fixed price contract? What'll happen is that the company, once it goes over-budget, will stop work and/or go bankrupt depending on the legal contract it signed. Then the client has no choice but to add more money into the pot - which suddenly sounds like a cost+ contract.